"Why so?"
"If you had not, you would have been a dead man. The fellow pounded you with his fist, which is about as heavy as an anvil, and kicked you with his boots, which are large enough and stout enough to make two very respectable gunboats."
"Things are rather mixed in my mind," added Somers, rubbing his head again, as if to explain how a strong-minded young man like himself should be troubled in his upper works.
"I am not surprised at that. You have remained insensible more than half an hour. I was afraid, before the surgeon saw you, that your pipe was out, and you had become a D.D. without taking orders."
"I think I had a narrow escape. What a tiger the fellow was that pitched into me!"
"It was all a mistake on his part."
"Perhaps it was; but that don't make my head feel any better. Who is he, and what is he?"
"He is the captain of a coaster. He had considerable money in his pocket, and he thought you had concealed yourself in his room for the purpose of robbing him. When he saw that you were an officer in the navy, he was overwhelmed with confusion, and really felt very bad about it."
"I don't know that I blame him for what he did, under the circumstances. His conclusion was not a very unnatural one. I don't exactly comprehend how I happen to be in the Continental House, after these stunning events."
"Don't you?" said Pillgrim, with a smile.